Theme: Past. Present. Future.

We want our TEDx to stimulate discussion and catalyse change. Our aim is for TEDxBrayfordPool to showcase the very best, and most current ideas, generated in Lincoln and Lincolnshire, to a global and enlightened audience to inspire change for good. The inaugural theme is Past. Present. Future. We plan to bring together thinkers, innovators, doers and pioneers who are changing the world through their work. We can use TEDxBrayfordPool as a platform to access knowledge and shared learning, projecting forward the best in innovation and advancements Lincoln has to offer.

Why TEDxBrayfordPool?
Brayford Pool is the heart of the City of Lincoln, Lincolnshire. It was a Roman port connecting the city to the sea during the reign of Emperor Nero. The north bank was regenerated in the latter twentieth century into a vibrant social hub. In the twenty first century, the south bank became home to the thriving University of Lincoln. It represents of the past, present and future of Lincoln as well as the ever-changing flow of ideas.

The Collection & Usher Gallery
Danes Terrace
Lincoln, Lincolnshire, LN2 1LP
United Kingdom

Adam Fox

Actor, Poet, Performer

Adam is a spoken word poet, actor and all round creative- type born and bred in Lincoln. After almost 10 years of performing and telling other people's stories; Adam took a step into a new world and started creating his own stories to tell as a scriptwriter and incidentally found spoken word poetry by accident. He has been writing and performing his poetry ever since his accidental discovery of rhyme and verse. He tends to focus his writings on the idea that there is much more to living than existing - A mantra he intends to live by.

Alfie Jack

Alt-pop duo

Combining a punchy chorus with thought provoking lyrics, Alfie Jack channel their youthful exuberance in a creative, alt pop sound, tackling relevant themes of boyish realism and defying social norms. ​ Living in rural Lincolnshire, the brothers, George Alfie and Freddie Jack, craft and create their own music, artwork and videos. Taking the D.I.Y. approach to their art and sound. ​ Alfie Jack have been writing and performing since 2012 and have homegrown their following from the ground up. More recently, they have had support from BBC Introducing in Lincolnshire and from that, have been invited to play at their curated event ’Plugged’ at the Lincoln Engine Shed and do a live session for their weekly radio show.

Andrew Whitehouse

Special Educational Needs Consultant, People First Education Ltd

Is a specialist in educational interventions for Neurological Disorders and provides therapy for: Attachment Disorders, ADHD, Autism, Asperger Syndrome, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dyspraxia, Pathological Demand Avoidance Syndrome and related conditions.  Andrew has a number of roles including training education professionals in schools and colleges, observing learners in the learning environment and providing practical strategies to help them achieve their potential.  ​ As well as running networking day courses across the UK for SEN, Andrew provides short courses for Bishop Grosseteste University and holds a number of UK and overseas contracts.

Christian Ørner

Private Chef & Chocolatier

Christian grew up in Lincoln and studied A-levels at Priory L.S.S.T in chemistry, human biology, psychology and theatre studies, Christian flew the nest and took his career path in a completely different direction. He has been a pivate chef for 10 years and h worked in some of the best hotels and restaurants in Poole and Bournemouth; he’s also worked on a 133m luxury private mega yacht, a cruise ship and at Wimbledon. Christian is now a private chef and chocolatier creating bespoke multi course dinners and hand crafted chocolates for those who enjoy great food and service in the comfort of their homes in Lincolnshire and Dorset.

City of Lincoln Waites

Mayor of Lincoln's Band of Musicians

The City Waites were the Mayor of Lincoln's Band of Musicians (until 1857). The present-day Waites recreate the sound, sights and atmosphere of a Tudor Mayor's Band. Most of the music they perform was written before 1530. During his reign, Henry III, commanded that watches should be kept at night. Town officials appointed good men to patrol the streets during the hours of darkness, keep the peace and to arrest criminals. At times of inactivity, some would play musical instruments to entertain themselves. The name "Waits" probably comes from the German 'wacht'. This is how the town bands or `Waits' started. Waits gradually evolved into bands of municipal musicians, with a civic duty to play music at special occasions and ceremonies such as "Mayor Making". The custom of Official town Waits died out, in most English Boroughs, soon after the Municipal Corporations Act (1835) was passed. Lincoln was unusual in retaining at least one Wait until 1857.

Dominic Jones

Musician, Comedian, Master of Ceremonies

Dominic grew up in Lincoln, is a graduate of the University of Falmouth, and is an East London cabaret regular. He sings obsessive, literary songs about sex, death and mysticism that strike the fine line between humour and darkness. Dominic is currently working as musical master of ceremonies in and around the capital. ​ His previous works include sci-fi themed soirée "May The Farce Be With You" at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club and Antic Follies Cabaret at Jamboree in Limehouse.

Elinor Vettraino

Programme Leader for Business & Enterprise

Dr Elinor Vettraino heads the Business and Enterprise area within the School of Humanities. This is a new area of the University and Elinor is currently designing and developing a flagship business team entrepreneurship programme based on the Finnish Team Academy model. Elinor has a diverse background in leadership and management, training and development and education with a focus on creative industries and the visual and performing arts. Outside of the university, Elinor is an experienced leader and manager with a background in education, leadership and creative industries. She uses her expertise to provide opportunities for individuals, teams and organisations to explore ways of creating positive, long lasting and effective change.

Graham Law

Professor of Medical Statistics, University of Lincoln

Professor Graham Law is a sleep scientist with more than 25 years of research experience, having published more than 100 research papers. He is Professor of Medical Statistics at the University of Lincoln, Honorary Secretary of the British Sleep Society and a member of the UK Biobank Expert group on sleep. Graham's work concentrates on how sleep and lifestyle impacts on diabetes. Recently Graham has published 'Sleep Better: the science and the myths', a book aimed at improving how we think about sleep. In his spare time he is husband to Nicki, a beautiful and intelligent woman, and Dad to two brilliantly clever, lovely and caring children.

Jack Cunningham

Academic Coordinator for Theology, Bishop Grosseteste University

Dr Jack Cunningham is the Academic Coordinator for Theology at Bishop Grosseteste University, in Lincoln. Jack is a Church Historian with a special interest in late medieval ecclesiastical history and philosophy, particularly the 13th Century scientist, philosopher and theologian Robert Grosseteste. In 2007 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in recognition of his work in Church history. Jack is a core member of the Ordered Universe Project; based at Durham University this project brings together scientists and historians to prepare the work of Robert Grosseteste for publication. He has authored and edited several articles and books, most recently, Robert Grosseteste and the pursuit of learning in the Middle-Ages.

Justine Taylor

Activist

Justine's inexplicable desire to eat hedgerows started without warning in 2014. A freshly escaped anthropologist, she was used to asking weird questions of things around her, and applied this to her new hobby. How did we cure ourselves with herbs grown on our windowsill? Did we burn doctors as witches? Without warning She'd been thrown into an untold story of food, bodies, disease and rebellion. The same (kind of) anarchistic struggles we see today recurring over a thousand years. As a human rights activist she seeks solutions, but can a love of gardening really free us from societal de ja vu?

Kelly Hunstone

Director, Social Change UK

Kelly is one of only a few social marketers in the UK and has worked on nationally recognised programmes including Change4 Life, Stoptober, Climate Ready and Know your Limits. She runs Social Change UK – an award winning Lincoln and London based change agency that works with UK government and household brands to design and deliver campaigns and programmes to positively change people’s attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. Starting in media and journalism, Kelly moved into PR and marketing within the public sector and quickly climbed the civil service ranks, supporting chief executives, ministers and MPs, writing speeches and working closely with various government departments including the Cabinet Office and the infamous ‘nudge unit’. Since setting up Social Change UK, Kelly has taken to social entrepreneurship and has developed several digital products to support people to be happy and healthy including the award winning ‘Heads Up’ platform for men experiencing mental distress.

Labi Siffre

Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Poet

Labi Siffre, self-defined as “An atheist, homosexual, black artist”, vowed, aged 13, to be a jazz singer; at 14 to be an artist/philosopher; at 16, on vocals & guitar, he had his own blues band, aged 18 he wrote his first songs. Mid 1960’s in a guitar/organ/drums trio Labi was resident in a London jazz club hosted by the singer Annie Ross. 1968 in Amsterdam found Labi capturing audiences solo with his own songs & 1970 saw the first of his 7 albums released. His chart hits include “It Must Be Love” (later a hit for Madness), “Crying Laughing Loving Lying”, “Watch Me” & “Something Inside So Strong". Sampled by Eminem (“My Name Is”), Jay-Z, Dr Dre & Kanye West (“I Wonder”), Labi has published three poetry books, “Nigger”, “Blood On The Page” & “Monument”. His one act play, “Deathwrite” was staged & televised.

Liz Bates

Chief Executive Officer of Heritage Lincolnshire

Liz is a historic buildings specialist with 19 years experience in the heritage sector. She was appointed CEO of Heritage Lincolnshire in 2013 and has focused the charity's resources on engaging communities and volunteers in researching, conserving and celebrating the County's unique heritage. Her expertise in conserving and adapting historic buildings for modern use led to her appointment as trustee to the Heritage Trust Network and she is also currently Chair of the Lincolnshire Heritage Forum.

Lizzie Jordan

Director, Think2Speak CIC

Social enterprise founder. Mother. Widow. HIV positive. One person; a myriad of possible labels. Eleven years ago, Lizzie became a mother, a widow and HIV positive all within an 18 month period. In 2015 Lizzie founded Think2Speak, a social enterprise inspiring confident communication, as she passionately believes in conversation as prevention. Her team deliver policy advice, workshops, training and support to schools across the country. Lizzie is an internationally acclaimed and respected HIV advocate and has shared her story and experiences in the House of Lords, has been interviewed by Stephen Fry and featured in The Guardian, The Observer, on BBC One and Radio Four amongst others. She's often called upon to share her experiences and champions effective engagement with stakeholders as an expert patient consultant, adviser and speaker. In 2016, Lizzie became 1 of 3 Patient Public Voices on the NHS England Specialised Commissioning Clinical Reference Group (CRG) for HIV.

Lyndsay Muir

Applied Theatre Practitioner & Senior Lecturer, Bishop Grosseteste University

Lyndsay is a senior lecturer at Bishop Grosseteste University, where she teaches on the undergraduate applied drama degree programme and leads the PGCE Secondary Drama course in initial teacher education. With colleagues in the school of Teacher Development she has researched the impact of 'Diversity Week' and she is working towards a Professional Doctorate at Manchester University, with practice centred research around applied theatre with trans people. She is a member of the Adam World Choir, an online community of trans and non-binary people who form a 'digital chorus' for the National Theatre Scotland's production of Adam. (Edinburgh Festival August 2017 and beyond). She's interested in how to creatively orchestrate face to face conversations with trans people as a vehicle towards demystifying trans identities.

Matt Larsen-Daw

Project Lead for the Tree Charter at the Woodland Trust

Matt is Project Lead for the Tree Charter at the Woodland Trust. Over the past three years he has been responsible for building a UK-wide people-led movement for trees, and chairing a steering group of more than 70 cross-sector organisations who together are defining a national Charter for Trees, Woods and People, launching in November 2017. Matt's background is in community participation, having spent nine years designing and delivering participatory photography projects that enable issue-affected communities to speak out and influence decision-making. Matt is Chair of socio-educational charity HVP Nepal-UK.

Nikki-Kate Heyes MBE

Chief Executive, soundLINCS

Nikki-Kate has worked in community music for over 30 years and has been at the helm of soundLINCS, a music education charity, since its creation in 1998. Nikki-Kate is an accomplished cellist, conductor and composer and in 2013 was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to music. Nikki-Kate began the Company as a sole trader operating from her home whilst she was a part-time freelance community musician. Her high energy, passion and leadership has established soundLINCS today as a nationally recognised not-for-profit organisation, working across the whole of the East Midlands.

Rebecca Vaughan

Singer Songwriter

Rebecca Vaughan is a singer songwriter who writes to explain the world around her, touching on topics such as sexism, discrimination, relationships and the haunting side affects of anxiety. ​ Her style has developed since she first begun writing and performing back in 2010, moving from the jazz and soul sounds of the late Amy Winehouse to a moodier and more reflective sound that resonates with the generations who are scared and already tired of what their life might look like in the future. Outspoken about the brutality of the industry and pressure it puts on women to sexualize themselves, Rebecca takes every opportunity to encourage and protect young aspiring artists from being taken advantage of and encourages a more open discussion on mental health within the industry. Having released two EP's since she begun writing she is looking forward to releasing her next EP which she hope conveys her concerns on modern day culture but also provides younger generations with hope that chan

Richard Askam

Director, Woolly North Consulting Ltd

I spent 20 years running my own business in the UK wine trade before founding a new business and diversifying into personalised alcohol gifts in 2007. I created and supplied the personalised champagne gift category for many online retailers including Moonpig, John Lewis, Interflora and many more. In 2014 I created the online campaign for ShareaCoke distributing 1.5 million bottles across Europe and in 2015 I created Unilever’s first ever direct to consumer campaign with personalised Marmite. ​ Having built turnover from £0 in 2007 to over £4million in 2015, I sold my business in early 2016 and now work around the world as a business speaker and business consultant to brands and retailers looking to unlock the added value that comes from digital print and personalisation.

Ruth Charnock

Senior Lecturer in English Literature, University of Lincoln

Dr Ruth Charnock is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Lincoln. She specialises in contemporary literature and culture. She is the author of two books: Anaïs Nin: sex, shame and contemporary culture (forthcoming with Ediburgh University Press, 2018) and Joni Mitchell: New Critical Readings (forthcoming with Bloomsbury NY, 2018).